What’s Mawasi, the Israel-designated Gaza ‘safe zone’ it bombed overnight?

Israel has killed at least 19 people in an attack on a tent encampment within the so-called humanitarian, or “safe”, zone in al-Mawasi, Gaza.

About 65 more are wounded and an unknown number remain under the rubble, health officials said.

The encampment, designated a humanitarian safe zone by Israel in December, was struck by at least three missiles in the early hours of Tuesday, displaced people and medics told news agencies.

The attack ignited a blaze that engulfed at least 20 tents.

The camp at al-Mawasi, near Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah, is one of the most overcrowded areas in a landscape devastated by 11 months of relentless Israeli bombardment.

Palestinians displaced by Israel’s war on Gaza are “increasingly forced to concentrate within the Israeli-designated zone in al-Mawasi”, an area of approximately 41sq km (15.83sq miles) lacking critical infrastructure and services, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Some 1.9 million people – 90 percent of Gaza’s population – have been displaced at least once by Israel’s war. Of those, roughly 43,580 are estimated to be pregnant women, statistics from the UN Population Fund show.

Many are crowded into flimsy tents after being ordered to al-Mawasi by the Israeli army.

The targeted area was crowded with more than 60 tents, according to September 5 satellite images examined by Al Jazeera’s Sanad investigations agency.

Multiple families share tents, with space at a premium and privacy nonexistent.

People are trying to survive without proper access to food, water, and essential services like sanitation and healthcare, aid agencies report. Queues for water, even to use in latrines, can last hours.

Aid delivery to the area is “limited due to access and security issues” while severe overcrowding compounds the dire health and sanitary conditions, OCHA said.

“Every day, we see between 300 to 400 people at the medical clinic, of which 200 cases are related to skin conditions,” Dr Youssef Salaf al-Farra told ReliefWeb in August.

“Children are the most impacted.”

Why did Israel say al-Mawasi is a ‘safe zone’?

Under international pressure for the “scale” of its war on Gaza, Israel designated al-Mawasi a “safe zone” in October last year, using leaflets, social media, and phone calls to tell people to go there for safety.

However, those who did found it unfit for human habitation.

Establishing the area as a humanitarian zone was widely criticised at the time, with World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calling the Israeli proposal a recipe for disaster on November 17.

“Attempting to cram so many people into such a small area with such little infrastructure or services will significantly increase risks to health for people who are already on the brink,” he said.